antenna-theory.com

[admin]

Alcatel put out a statement talking about their new "technology":

http://next-generation-communications.tmcnet.com/topics/nextgen-voice/articles/140566-alcatel-says-new-antenna-technology-could-decrease-consumption.htm

They claim they can use antenna arrays or "smart antennas" to steer a beam of power directly to a user's device. This would focus an array, adapting to a users location.

The idea is great in principle: use an antenna array to focus the energy of a cell tower to where you want it to go, minimizing interference in other directions and maximizing throughput.

Great idea, but it has been around for about 50 years. This is simply adaptive algorithms, which have been around since the 1960s, and a simple method is the LMS algorithm:
http://www.antenna-theory.com/arrays/weights/lms.php

Anyway, the idea isn't new, and arraycomm is a company in the bay area of San Francisco, California has been doing this stuff for years.

In conclusion, this article caught my eye today, being discussed as "news". But really it is just a rehash of a very old idea, that a company had the audacity to claim as their own.